Wednesday, September 11, 2019

A guide for
consumers to navigate through all those ‘sustainable’
products

TORONTO, Ont. —From
“natural” tea, to “green” cleaning supplies to “eco-friendly” clothing, there
are endless products being marketed with claims that attempt to convince
consumers that they are making the right decision when
shopping.

“Canadians are
concerned about the state of our environment and worker conditions, and are
opting for more sustainable, conscientious products and services,” says Laurie
Simmonds, President and CEO of Green Living Enterprises. “With companies using
various ‘green’ claims and labels now more than ever, it can be difficult to
distinguish between what looks and sounds ethical and sustainable, and what
actually is.”

Product
certifications alleviate this challenge for consumers, as any certified product
has undergone a rigorous third party evaluation; examining everything from
environmental impact, ingredient procurement, worker conditions and compensation
to name few. Choosing products with the following labels will help you shop
smarter and feel more confident about your buying power:

·While many may
think it’s the most obvious, Fairtrade is
often a confusing term. The Fairtrade mark means the ingredients in a product
have been produced by small-scale farmer organizations or plantations that meet
social, economic and environmental standards. Equifruit for example, is the Canadian
market leader of Fairtrade-certified bananas, with a large number of retail
partners in Quebec and Ontario.

·B Certified is to a business what
Fairtrade is to fruit or coffee. Launched in 2006, B Certified companies meet
the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public
transparency and legal accountability. Dedicated to offering bee-derived
superfoods, Beekeeper’s Naturals
is a great example of a B Certified company that has undergone strict analysis
and understands their overarching duty to the environment. It is one of 2,048 B
Corporations in 50 countries around the world, all demonstrating a desire to
make change and be part of something bigger.

·Eating organic
is one of the most popular ways to lead a healthier, more sustainable life. This
can be made easy by purchasing products with the Canada Organic label and certification
(define what it means – pesticides, antibiotics, etc..). Canada’s organic
standards are among the most recognized in the world and Harmony Organic is a Canadian
company that wears this label with pride. With 14 family farm producers, Harmony
Organic is passionate about the quality of their dairy, their cows and the
earth.

·Sustainable
food choices continue to be important to Canadians, changing the way they think
about what’s on their plates. With overfishing being the biggest threat our
oceans face today, consumers who choose to eat seafood can make a difference by
choosing fish that is responsibly sourced or by visiting restaurants, like Hawthorne Food & Drink that use the Oceanwise symbol — an assurance against
overfishing, harm to other aquatic creatures and protection of the marine
ecosystem.

·The Leaping Bunny logo is one to look out
for when purchasing personal-care products and cosmetics. Companies like Skin Essence Organics that are certified
through the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics, make a voluntary
pledge to eliminate animal testing from all stages of product development.

“We are all trying to make
better choices for our health and wellbeing that will help build a better world,
with a healthy environment and strong communities,” adds Laurie. “Learning about
these various labels and certifications is a great step in that
direction”.

This April,
visit all of these people- and planet-friendly certified companies, plus 400
sustainable companies at the Green
Living Show taking place April 7th to 9th, 2017, at
the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Please RSVP if you would like to attend as
media.

For more info
on leading a healthier, greener lifestyle, please visit www.greenlivingshow.ca. ‘Like’ them on
Facebook, or follow @GreenLivingPage.

About Green
Living Enterprises

Green Living
Enterprises is Canada’s leading cause-marketing agency focused on social and
environmental program development. Our team is led by award-winning industry
experts in the fields of brand and program development; custom content;
advertising, marketing and communications; and event management. Green Living
Enterprises also includes Greenlivingonline.com and The Green Living Show,
Canada’s largest consumer show, dedicated to simple solutions for leading a
healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Green Living
Show

The Green
Living Show is Canada’s largest consumer show dedicated to simple solutions for
leading a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. This three-day event offers
inspiration for all ages and features influential speakers; innovative products;
eco home and garden design; local and organic food and wine tastings; health,
wellness and yoga pavilions; eco fashion and green beauty makeovers; electric
car test drives; nature exhibits and fun activities for the entire
family.

Monday, September 9, 2019

A convoluted – and doomed – communication portal in Nova Scotia has failed the health care system and its users on both sides

By David Zitner

Senior Health Policy Fellow

Atlantic Institute for Market Studies

Most
businesses encourage clients to electronically access their own
information because consumers value the efficiency and convenience of
electronic access.

Unfortunately,
the Nova Scotia Department of Health (DOH) has a different idea. It has
been a successful barrier preventing most Nova Scotians from retrieving
and using their own health information.

Few
Nova Scotians have access to their own health records or timely,
unimpeded, access to the results of recent tests. Most Nova Scotians
can’t communicate with doctors by phone or email.

The
DOH claims it wants to simplify care by encouraging people to
participate in their own care and have access to their own information.
However, only a select few Nova Scotians, privileged by DOH policies,
can call and speak to doctors over the telephone and can access their
health information.

The
Department of Health unashamedly reports that after eight years of
effort, and at huge financial expense, only a tiny and select group of
30,000 patients cared for by 300 doctors have routine access to a health
information portal. The remaining 97 per cent of Nova Scotians are in
the second tier for health care, without access to a personal health
information portal or the ability to speak over the phone with their
doctors (if they have one).

MyHealthNS,
using McKesson’s Relay Health, has been an ongoing effort by the Nova
Scotia Department of Health to give all Nova Scotians access to some of
their health information. Unfortunately, it made a simple goal
complicated and became a barrier to Nova Scotia innovation. Not
surprisingly McKesson Canada is withdrawing from this failing venture.

In
the interest of putting most Nova Scotians at a similar disadvantage,
the Department of Health doesn’t allow anyone, including doctors and
nurses, to retrieve their laboratory results or other health information
from any system other than the cumbersome and doomed Relay Health
system approved by the DOH.

Nevertheless,
despite inadequate compensation for electronic communication, a few
doctors continue to encourage and support patients who want to use
ordinary email for their communications.

In
the normal world, forwarding an email is easy. The initial recipient of
an email report merely forwards the information to another recipient.
In the case of health information, the doctor can forward laboratory
reports or advice using any email system acceptable to the doctor and
patient.

Many
patients prefer to take the risk of insecure communication using common
email systems to gain safer and more efficient care. They prefer their
usual email systems partly because health department systems regularly
report privacy breaches.

Sadly,
the Relay Health project interfered with existing projects, including
ones by the Cooperative Council, that were designed to accomplish
similar goals and at no cost to government or patients.

One
electronic health record vendor whose product was used by many Nova
Scotia physicians reported that the Department of Health wouldn’t allow
it to put patients’ email addresses in doctors’ patient record systems.
The DOH insisted that clinicians only provide patients with access
through the cumbersome Relay Health system.

Rather
than taking five or 10 seconds to forward a report with a brief
comment, the Department of Health demanded that doctors take
substantially more time to use Relay Health.

Every
year, some people are harmed, including dying, because a lab report was
ignored, mishandled or lost. When patients have access to their own
laboratory reports, they have the power to be active participants in
their care and prevent the consequences of lost reports.

There
are no rational reasons for the Nova Scotia Department of Health to
continue to act as a barrier to easy communication between doctors and
their patients.

Dr.
David Zitner, a retired family physician, was the founding director of
the graduate program in Health Informatics at Dalhousie University and
is Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) senior health policy fellow.

Friday, September 6, 2019

Changing the world, one life at a time through the message of health. And getting iinfo out to everyone so we can make healthy choices for ourselves and family. Visit them on Facebook for more information....